Acer

With an updated design and support for Android, iOS, and Windows, Acer is hoping the Liquid Leap+ will take off.

With the original Liquid Leap Smart Activeband barely leaving shelves, Acer has decided their wearable plan needed a refresh. Today at Mobile World Conference, the company has revealed their plans for an updated version of their first wearable. It's being called the Liquid Leap+, and chief among the features Acer is hoping will excite users is support for the three largest mobile operating systems in what they call an "OS agnostic" approach to the market.

Microsoft has released a yet another anti-iPad ad, this time awkwardly trying to make fun of the iPad mini by putting it up against what everyone on Twitter tells me is the worst period Windows period tablet period in the world period - the Acer Iconia W3.

NPD recently published the results of their Q1 2012 mobile PC market research, and as you might expect, Apple's iPad has dominated competing mobile PC manufacturers. After shipping 17.2 million iPads in the quarter, Apple has claimed 22.5% market share, compared to HP's 11.6%, Acer's 9% and Lenovo's 7.7%. Among tablet manufacturers, the iPad commanded 62.8% market share, followed by Samsung with 7.5%, Amazon with 4%, and RIM tied with ASUS with 2.3%.

It seems Acer and Samsung didn't even wait for CES 2012 to official start before announcing AcerCloud, PicStream, and SwipeIt, or basically what Apple announced in 2011. Acer was up first with a service called AcerCloud that sounds suspiciously like iCloud, even substituting PicStream for Photo Stream. Hmm...

Acer has reported their first ever quarterly loss and Chairman J.T. Wang is placing the blame squarely on "tablets" (i.e. iPad), a "fever" he does not think will last. Having seen their fortunes rise with the netbook market most hurt by Apple's iPad, Wang concedes it would be impossible for Acer to break even this year, but thinks iPad will face and netbooks will regain consumer interest moving forward.

Apple's iPad and iPhone are like mutant viruses according to Acer founder Stan Shih, who says they may be difficult to cure now but PC vendors and Google's Android will isolate and become immune to in the future. (So, basically, the plot from that poorly adapted X3 movie?)

Shih pointed out that Apple deserves to be respected, since it has a completely different strategy than other PC brands. Apple CEO Steve Jobs has always been looking for revolution, while other PC brands evolved naturally and are developing products in a more solid way, Shih commented. But based on the historical experience, a market that evolves naturally will always turn out to be much stronger, according to Shih.

Acer chairman JT Wang, thinks that the iPad will drop from its current near 100% market share to somewhere around 20% or 30%. Like Asus, Acer's netbook business is feeling the pain of Apple's entry into the "third device category" with iPad. Since Apple is pretty much alone in that space right now -- despite a 10 year Tablet PC head start we should point out -- any form of real competition will begin splitting the market.